The battle for Ramadi

For Iraqis the year 2016 has been ushered in with their military’s capture of ISIL’s headquarters in Ramadi, capital of the nation’s Anbar province. In terms of what 2016 holds for the future, the military dynamics that led to the fall of Ramadi will serve as long-term harbinger of ISIL’s ability to endure in Iraq.

Upon first glance, the fall of Ramadi appears to mean little for the long term campaign against ISIL. The recent victory brings Iraq back to the status quo as of May 2015, when Iraqi forces took retook Tikrit from ISIL towards the end of April, but then lost Ramadi right after. It took the Iraqi forces several months to return to this status quo. Over all, the victory would appear as a loss, as the Iraqi state won back Ramadi, but utterly devastated the city in the process.

However, in the long term perspective, the fall of Ramadi is a victory in terms of the lessons applied on the strategic-political level and the evolution of Iraqi military tactics, which signals a significant setback for ISIL.

He explains the importance:

Whereas the battle for Tikrit primarily featured irregular Shia militias, the battle for Ramadi involved the (ISF), along with irregular tribal Sunni levies. This was not so much a battle for a city, but a battle by the Iraqi state to project that it still has a national army, and is willing to work with the Sunni tribes. …

On another level, the role played by national Iraqi forces in the fall of Ramadi also has implications for the creation of an inclusive sense of Iraqiness. A debate has ensued since the summer of 2014 as to whether one can claim that the Iraqi nation still exists. …

With the fall of Ramadi, the Iraqi military, which is featured prominently on this channel, can now also claim that it represents the national aspirations of Iraq. Again any Iraqi will know that the nation is divided among Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militias. For the legitimacy of Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi, the Iraqi military’s victory in Ramadi is a testament of his ability to preside at the helm of what remains of the Iraqi state and nation.

So the importance is this was not a battle won by Shia militia against Sunni insurgents. It was the Iraqi military against ISIL.

What remains to be seen after the fall of Ramadi is the ability of the Iraqi military to develop a doctrine, or a series of lessons learned in the fighting that can be carried forward in the battle for Mosul. A BBC article revealed that the Iraqi military has benefitted from a learning curve during the months-long campaign to remove ISIL from Ramadi.

The Iraqi insurgency that erupted from 2003 primarily used hit-and-run tactics against US and Iraqi forces, tactics typical of a guerilla war meant to wear down the resolve of the enemy. As a result, the US training mission had focused on ensuring Iraq’s new military could deal with this type of combat.

ISIL is different type of insurgent group, holding cities and territory, which required retraining the Iraqi military forces in sustained urban combat, fighting street-by-street, house-by-house.

This transformation of training the Iraqi military from counter-insurgency to urban combat explains why it took so long to be deployed on the front lines, creating a security vacuum which the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi Shia militias filled.

And as the Herald reports, the troops fighting in Ramadi include those trained by the New Zealand Army:

Iraqi troops trained by the New Zealand Defence Force were part of a force that has retaken the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State (Isis) terrorist group.

Defence minister Gerry Brownlee said the success was a result of the commitment to the Building Partner Capacity training programme.

“New Zealand and Australian trainers can take some pride over the successful action by the recruits.

“NZDF trainers have gone into a dangerous environment and professionally established a training operation which is upskilling large numbers of Iraqi troops to better equip themselves to fight.

“New Zealanders can be very proud of the work our troops are doing to professionalise the Iraqi security forces,” Mr Brownlee said in a statement.

It is worth recalling that Labour said the training was pointless and NZ First called the Iraqi army cowards.

This is only one battle, and there will be many more battles and some setbacks. But as the author writes, this was very important psychologically, and a key building block. And New Zealand played a small part in giving the Iraqi people a better chance of not having to live under a fascist theological barbaric regime.

stephieboy

Nostalgia-NZ

This is also significant that territory claimed by the Islamic State is lost, it’s arguable that the existence of ISIS depends on it’s claims to territory because that is their own declaration. Is it so much of a surprise that that the executions in Saudi will be seen by some to be a reaction to the fall of Ramadi. The master plan is dented, becoming locked in a conventional war always looked risky as did claiming territory. They also have a weakened position from which to negotiate from a base in Ramadi.

Andrei

A top Iraqi general has claimed the US interfered and placed obstacles in the way of them liberating Ramadi

It is also claimed that the US evacuated the ISIS leadership there before it fell

That is in part what Kowtow is referring to I suspect

It is as Kowtow said a complex issue – because the USA and its (whatever number the disingenuous John Kerry claims) allies in Iraq are as popular there as a case of herpes.

In truth the USA was asked to leave Iraq before ISIS appeared on the scene but their presence give them a cassus belli to remain and increase their forces in the region as well as to make war in Syria officially on ISIS but in practice on the Syrian Government in Damascus which of course is the very antithesis of ISIS.

The situation is chaotic but chaos is what you get from Neocon foreign policy particularly when their Saudi allies and the Turks have a dog in this fight as well

Tauhei Notts

David,
I must take issue with your comment;
“New Zealand played a small part in giving Iraqi people a better chance of not having to live under a fascist theocratic barbaric regime.”
I watched the documentary on Al Jazeera last night; it was about that war lord James Steele; and I think that documentary contradicts that comment of David’s.
If New Zealanders’ television news was limited to the dross served up by TV One and TV 3, I would, in my ignorance, not be able to criticise David’s comment.

s.russell

It is very easy for armchair critics to demand instant action and instant results against a vule the me such as IS. The unfortunate reality is that rgoid results are like good cheese. They take time. Which is frustrating. The victory in Ramadi is the fruit of patience and suggests that US policy might not be so useless as certain persons have claimed.

Andrei

It is also claimed that the US evacuated the ISIS leadership there before it fell

Claimed by whom?

Probably by the same idiots who claim 9/11 was an inside job.

This is reported in the Iranian and Russian media quoting Commander of Imam Khamenei Battalion Haidar al-Hosseini al-Ardavi.

Note I carefully reported it as a claim not a fact

But ISIS is certainly being supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey and indirectly by the USA – a huge amount of American arms have gone to “moderate rebels” in Syria and once in Syria well who knows whose hands they will end up in or to what purpose they will be put.

The joker in the pack is the desire for regime change in Syria i.e. replace the secular government of Dr Bashir al-Assad with a moderate sunni one (this actually means a government that will comply with American, Saudi and Qatari interests rather than act independently in the interests of the Syrian peoples)

Andrei

Ah Mikey truth of that matter will probably be buried for fifty years if not forever – the funny thing about you is you get muddled between Russia, the USSR and Ukraine

You see in Soviet times before 1990 the Ukrainian SSR was the richest and most developed region within the USSR and most of the Soviet weapons systems were actually manufactured there – indeed a lot of modern Russian military equipment was still being manufactured there and was a major source of foreign exchange for those blighted lands until the American inspired putsch

stephieboy

Andrei, the simple fact is that ISIS drew their intial recruit base from ex Saddam Hussein’s armed forces personal . The Toyota Hi Luxes and other weapons were obtained from those left behind or captured from the withdrawing US armed forces .

KevinH

Andrei
Iraqi troops abandoned US supplied equipment when Ramadi fell to ISIS in May 2015 which probably explains how those same weapons are now being used by ISIS. The US has been targeting those weapon sites with air strikes but it is probably to late now that the weapons have been distributed amongest ISIS forces. The real question is who is resupplying ISIS.
The report from Imam Khamenei Battalion Commander Haidar al Hosseini al Ardavi that US forces had evacuated Isis commanders from Ramadi is more than likely a false flag report originating from Tehran, Hashd al Shaabi militia are Shia and are not under any control from Iraqi Miltary. There were reports in May 2015 that Iraqi commanders were evacuated from Ramadi before it fell to ISIS and that is probaly where the story had it’s origins.
In so far as the Ukranian armaments industry is concerned, the Ukraine is listed in the top ten arms producing nations and surprisingly manufactures weapons on license from the US , Canada and Israel to name a few.

G152

Andrei

KevinH the big problem with your narrative is that ISIS first appeared in Syria not Iraq and from there they were able to make a lightening advance across central and Northern Iraq which would suggest that they were very well equipped and armed long before they took Ramadi.

Do you know where Ukraine’s industrial base is centered? Or what state most of it is in today 04/01/2016?

Another waste of TAXPAYERS money.
What the fuck do we think we are doing?

2000 years of shit and fighting dogma and all and these people are stupid enough to think we can change it.
Try throwing a stone in a lake and see what happens when it sinks.
That’s all that will happen here.
Won’t even notice where we have been.

Give the taxpayer back his money and let these festering camel drivers go about their own ways.

Adolf Fiinkensein

Andrei

AK 47s are manufactured all over the world Adolf, including the USA¹ – they haven’t been manufactured in Russia since the 1970s

(1) These not licensed by Kalashnikov – would you support the deportation of the owners of this company to Russia to face trial for copyright violation? 🙂

Edited to add – AK47s are an entirely different proposition to the TOW anti tank system in any case – a cheap and easily manufactured assault rifle compared to a complex and expensive wire guided anti tank missile system

anything you may say on this issue is rendered NOT CREDIBLE by your idiot claim that Obama admin is Neocon. It is not. Anyone who actually understands Neocon political philosophy, and by understand I mean has actually read the views of real Neocons, not whackjob interpretations from whackjob web sites understands that the Obama admin is not, and cannot credibly be claimed to be, Neocon, in any way, shape, or form.

Also, contrary to the lie spread by you and Reid, I am not a Neocon. Neocons are Hamiltonians on foreign policy, and I am a Jacksonian. I won’t bother explaining those terms of the difference between them, as you are in desperate need of educating yourself on many issues related to the USA. Google.

blazeoflight

Local official Eid Amash said 80 percent of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, has been destroyed in the battles between Iraq’s army – backed by US air strikes – and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has continued to launch a series of deadly attacks against Iraqi government forces on the edges of the western city of Ramadi, days after they were driven out of the city centre.

I suggest that celebrations are premature.

The fact is that NZs contribution is minuscule and insignificant, and these posts serve only to propagandise and to manufacture consent for what, essentially, is another John Key ‘sucking the big fat sav’ moment (where the sav in question is JKs second home, the US).

mikenmild

Nostalgia-NZ

‘Ok, so Ramadi has.mostly been taken but then nobody except this guy has asked where the ISIS fighters have gone? Did they evaporate into thin air?’

They have the blueprint already, exactly what the Iraq army did when America invaded, shed their uniforms and fled, allowing many to reinvent as terrorists fighters against the current regime. Were any lessons learnt from that? Doesn’t seem so, or else infra structure destruction would not happen. A priority would instead be to enhance security for the locals, bridge their fear of retaliation as much as realistically possible, ensure that security includes safety within the recovered territory and at all costs stem refugees needing to flee other that to safe and controlled areas.

Dexter

Ah Mikey truth of that matter will probably be buried for fifty years if not forever – the funny thing about you is you get muddled between Russia, the USSR and Ukraine

We already know the airliner was shot down by pro-Russian separatists who are funded, trained and resourced by Russia.

And yet you want us to somehow believe that they somehow sourced the soviet made and manufactured BUK unit, independently using their own initiative?

Little wonder Russia veto’ed a UN resolution to try and prosecute the terrorists that committed this act. One wouldn’t want to be seen to be equipping and supporting terrorists while running a PR campaign promoting their actions against ISIS.

Andrei

We already know the airliner was shot down by pro-Russian separatists who are funded, trained and resourced by Russia.

No “we” don’t – that is the line the Western propaganda has shouted from almost the second the plane hit the ground

And because you have been brainwashed from almost birth that Russians are bad and that British and Americans are paragons of virtue, you will never question it.

And my friend the resolution was passed without veto after amendments were incorporated. See you didn’t know that because nobody bothered to tell you – it was news while the wording was being finalized but when it went through – not a word in the media

Dexter

Actually that’s the line that independent investigations have concluded after examining the evidence.

And it’s extremely ironic you talk about Western propaganda, no-one beats the Russians at that game;

“The Russian government-funded[281] outlet RT initially said that the plane may have been shot down by Ukraine in a failed attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, in a plot which was organised by Ukraine’s “Western backers”.[282][283] Other theories propagated by Russian media include: that the Ukrainians shot down the plane in a botched attempt at mass murder of Russian citizens or by mistake (reported twice, in July[284] and in December[285]); that Ukrainian air traffic controllers purposefully redirected the flight to fly over the war zone; and that the Ukrainian government organised the attack on the plane to bring infamy upon the pro-Russian rebels.[286]” On 15 November, Russia’s Channel One reported on a supposedly leaked spy satellite photo which shows the plane being shot from behind by a Ukrainian fighter jet.[294][295] Many other Russian media reprinted the photo.

And as to your link ‘friend’, that resolution is from July 2014, Russia vetoed a resolution in June 2015 that proposed setting up an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible. Terrorists it seems are actually okay, so long as they are on Russia’s bankroll.

V

stephieboy,

Did you even read the links?
It is not a ‘conspiracy theory’! If you bothered to read the zerohedge link about Mark-1 plumbing it is very clearly shown that the Texas plumber’s business has been affected by having his second hand vehicle show up in Isis territory with an AA gun mounted on the back. The documents that pertain to the transit of the vehicle and his lawsuit are provided as evidence.
Evidence, that concept you don’t seem to be particularly familiar with.

stephieboy

V, I had a good look at your articles and found them all very unconvincing. Take the first one about the Texas plumber Mark Oberholtzer Pumber’s vehicle ending up in the Middle East . The following link examines the chain of his sale at auction and how and where it ended up ,

As you will see Hi Luxes are in hot demand in the Middle East long before ISIS came into being . Why? Super reliability, ruggedness and low maintenance costs etc. Top Gear demonstrated this in one episode by putting a Hi Lux through all kinds of indignities including leaving it in the sea over night.
When they fetched it started in perfect running order .

Yes ,the US has exported some of the vehicles to the Middle East and originally for non lethal use .ISIS , Syrian, Libyan and other insurgency groups world wide have found them to be very useful and easy to convert into cheap military transport vehicles . Certainly much cheaper to buy and run than their military transport equivalents .

Also the Middle East since WW2 has become a virtual arms bazaar awash with all kinds of countries competing for a ready market . Thus it;s no surprise that ISIS has available lots of different kinds of vehicle and weapons – Russian (and old Soviet ) ,US, British, French, Chinese etc . Often left behind by withdrawing armed forces as in Iraq 2009 etc.

I think it stretches credulity to suggest that just because the US Government or private sellers sold some Hi Luxes or other Utes to the Middle East you can therefore connect the dots ,and say they are funding and supporting ISIS. No less or no more than Russia or China and their weapons that have ended up in their hands .

Very useful link here that covers the above and more points your raised ,